Asia/Pacific

09/01/1998

Asia/Pacific

Wall Street sees further tool declines in Asia. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is making a $300 million cut in its 1998 capital budget, and Singapore rival Chartered Semiconductor is pondering cuts of its own. Taiwan has been seen as the strongest growth area in this difficult year for wafer fab equipment suppliers; while there still will be substantial spending there, IC companies appear to be backing away from levels anticipated just a short time ago. As a result of these moves and continued soft pricing in the chip market, one leading Wall Street analyst has made downward revisions to estimates of the 1998 capital equipment market, and another has suggested that global capital expenditures could be cut another 10% by the end of the year.

ESEC Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Singapore, has signed a US$30 million contract to supply wire and die bonders to PT Astra Microtronics Technology for its contract assembly facility in Batam, Indonesia. ESEC recently expanded its assembly facilities in Singapore and will see a doubling of capacity.